


baby girl

by gingergenower



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: 2x05, Angst, Canon Compliant, Coda, Fatherhood, Feels, Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, magnus bane deserves to have a family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 10:16:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18364010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingergenower/pseuds/gingergenower
Summary: Everything about her is delicate, so fragile and small; her rosy skin, her sharp fingernails, her button nose, and Magnus wants to tell her she’s not the circumstances she was born in. He wants to keep her safe from the world that might see her as a monster, he wants to keep her close.





	baby girl

Magnus shifts his weight from foot to foot smoothly, just enough movement to keep the baby asleep. She’s no more than a month old, cradled against his chest in one of his arms, her tiny hands clinging to the collar of his shirt even in sleep.

Between speaking, negotiating homes for the five children they found in Iris’ brownstone, Magnus hums an old lullaby he can’t remember learning. He’s calling in every favour he’s ever been owed- there’s a place in Hungary that takes in parentless warlock children, but they have to be over two years old to be accepted there. The girl Magnus is holding hasn’t developed her warlock mark yet.

They don’t even know her name.

Caterina coos, not saying much of anything to the baby boy she’s feeding, but his wide eyes stare up at her as she talks. She checked them all over for Magnus and insisted on staying to help even though her shift only ended an hour ago, still in her scrubs, when she realised how many there were.

He’s trying not to think about the sparse details Alec offered him- the _production_ of warlock children forced on mundane women- but he can’t help but look down at the baby girl in his arms.

Everything about her is delicate, so fragile and small; her rosy skin, her sharp fingernails, her button nose, and he wants to tell her she’s not the circumstances she was born in. He wants to keep her safe from the world that might see her as a monster, he wants to keep her close.

“You can’t keep her, you know,” Caterina says, quiet.

Magnus glances up, smiling a little wryly. “I know.”

He has no place in his life for children. He probably never will- and there’s so few he can even ask this of, but he knows enough good people he can trust with raising these children and loving them.

“You can, if you want,” Magnus says, softer, and Caterina shakes her head fondly.

“I haven’t the time for a baby. I’ve already done that, and… I can’t right now.”

“Well, let me know if you change your mind in the next ten minutes,” Magnus says, finding the next number worth calling, “It’ll save me some time.”

Caterina smiles but doesn’t answer him, alight with adoration at the baby in her arms.

As warlocks arrive and take the babies one at a time until there’s only the two they’re holding left, Magnus suggests he might try to find Iris and the little girl she took- around four years old, Alec thought, her warlock mark gills- and Caterina swallows, clearly holding back some vicious emotion. If either of them had been here, if they had known…

They might have been able to save her too.

Magnus turns back to the tiny bundle in his arms. He knows he has only moments left with her, and he has no wisdom to impart, nothing he can offer her. He pockets his phone and nudges her hand, her whole fist curling around his finger, and he ignores the lump in his throat.

It’s impossible not to love her.

As he introduces her to the man she’ll cherish as her father, Magnus calls her Adeline. The warlock smiles and repeats her name, already crying as he takes her.

“Be happy, Adeline,” Magnus says softly, stroking a finger down her cheek before he forces himself to pull back. “Congratulazioni, papà.”

A laugh bursts out of the man, thanking Magnus over and over again in Italian, but his entire world is his baby girl now and Magnus entirely understands. He creates a portal for them and they disappear through it.

Magnus- stares, for a few moments, arms suddenly cold and empty, but he forces himself to exhale, hastily wiping the tears away before he turns back to Caterina.

One left, and then they can both go home.

“If you manage to find Madzie,” Caterina murmurs, putting the bottle aside and lifting up the baby boy to burp him, “I’ll make time for her.”

Magnus nods, knowing she’s entirely serious and her resolve wouldn’t waver if it was five years before he found her. There’s no one he would trust more.

**Author's Note:**

> ngl I was just thinking about harry holding xia while I was writing this


End file.
